Obituaries

230518ABBASOBITALKASSIMVTR.mp4

File name: 230518_ABBAS_OBIT_ALKASSIM_VTR
Runtime: 00:04:08:12
Correspondent: Mohammad Al-Kassim
Outcue: on his health and wellbeing
For the Palestinian leadership, an era has come to an end.
For well over a decade Mahmoud Abbas has been a key figure in the private and public Palestinian landscape – head of the PLO since 2004, at the helm of the Fatah faction, and serving as Palestinian president since his election in 2005.
Abbas's life began HERE in 1935, in the picturesque city of Safed - what was then the Galilee region of Mandatory Palestine. 13 years later, the family fled north to Syria – leaving behind Israel's war of independence - what the Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe.
It was in Syria that Abbas began his studies…a LAW degree in Damascus came first… then a PhD in Moscow that would come to be a source of criticism throughout his life**** - his dissertation entitled "The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism."
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For well over a decade Mahmoud Abbas has been a key figure in the private and public Palestinian landscape – head of the PLO since 2004, at the helm of the Fatah faction, and serving as Palestinian president since his election in 2005.

Abbas's life began HERE in 1935, in the picturesque city of Safed - what was then the Galilee region of Mandatory Palestine. 13 years later, the family fled north to Syria – leaving behind Israel's war of independence - what the Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe.

In 1961, Abbas living in Qatar at the time, was recruited to join Fatah, then an underground group advocating armed resistance against Israel, founded by Yasser Arafat. This began a cooperation that lasted until Arafat's death in 2004

Abbas was a successful fundraiser for the PLO in its early days and in 1970 was named head of the international department a position he used to forge relations with Israeli peace activists and pacifists. So when the Oslo accords were negotiated it was no surprise to find him among its main architects and to see him accompany Arafat to the landmark event in Washington in 1993. The accord bears his signature.

After Arafat's death Mahmoud Abbas was an obvious successor. He took office in 2005 in the midst of the second Intifada and managed to shift Palestinian Foreign Policy. Being an advocate of non-violent resistance, he shed the military garb of his predecessor and traded it in for a western style suit. The United States, encouraged by this appointment, introduced the "Road Map" a plan expected to lead to a two state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

But his terms was also stained by stagnation and challenges. When former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert offered him a deal including 95% of the West Bank for the future Palestinian state, negotiations fell though and while Abbas made economic progress, channeling money from Europe and the US into the West Bank, peace remained allusive, and Palestinian society suffered from deep internal division and despite attempts, Palestinians remained split between the Fatah movement in the West Bank and the Gaza based Hamas ruling party.

The PA chief was painted into a corner as Israel fought bitterly with Hamas, pushing Abbas to the sidelines.

As infringement upon Palestinian civil liberties increased, Abbas was also accused of ruling with an iron fist as he cracked down on hardliners and political opponents.

His later years saw a decrease in financial support from the EU, UN and the US due to wide spread government corruption and lack of progress in the peace process.

Adding to his troubles, Abbas witnessed as Arab states gradually losing interest in the Palestinian cause.

Israel accused him of not being a true partner for peace and together with the US slammed the PA's for promoting violence, paying hundreds of millions of dollars to families of convicted terrorists.

The election of President Trump and his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, marked a new low in Palestinian American relations.

Still many in Israel saw Abbas as a stabilizing factor in the bloody conflict between the two nations.

Towards the end of his life, internal Palestinian conflict along with the lack of progress in advancement of peace and diplomatic efforts took their toll on his health and well-being.

V/O: PERHAPS ONLY GEORGE WASHINGTON BROUGHT A MORE DESERVING RESUME TO THE PRESIDENCY THAN GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, AMERICA’S FORTY FIRST PRESIDENT WHO DIED TODAY IN HOUSTON TEXAS AT THE AGE OF 94.

V/O: PRESIDENT BUSH WAS BORN IN MILTON MASSACHUSETTS IN 1924. HIS FATHER PRESCOTT BUSH WOULD BECOME A SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT, BEGINNING A POLITICAL DYNASTY SPANNING NEARLY SEVEN DECADES AND SPAWNING TWO PRESIDENTS

V/O: GEORGE BUSH, NICKNAMED “POPPY”, ATTENDED THE ELITE PHILIP’S ANDOVER ACADEMY. IT WAS THERE THAT HE WOULD MEET BARBARA PIERCE WHO WOULD BECOME HIS WIFE OF 73 YEARS

V/O; BUSH GRADUATED AND ENLISTED IN THE NAVY AS AN AVIATOR. IN A WORLD WAR II MISSION OVER CHICHIJIMA ISLAND, HIS PLANE TOOK FIRE, BUT BUSH COMPLETED HIS BOMBING BEFORE PARACHUTING INTO THE PACIFIC TO BE RESCUED LATER BY A US SUB.

V/O; BUSH CONVENTION SPEECH: (4;07-4:18) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psbKsJ7Kg48 I WILL KEEP AMERICA MOVING FORWARD, ALWAYS FORWARD, FOR A BETTER AMERICA, FOR AN ENDLESS ENDURING DREAM AND A THOUSAND POINTS OF LIGHT

V/O: STILL, BUSH DEFEATED DEMOCRAT MICHAEL DUKAKIS IN 1988

SOT: BUSH INAUGURATION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmrNcdmdVY (19:37-19:53) SOME SEE LEADERSHIP AS HIGH DRAMA AND THE SOUND OF TRUMPETS CALLING, AND SOMETIMES IT IS THAT, BUT I SEE HISTORY AS A BOOK WITH MANY PAGES AND EACH DAY WE FILL A PAGE WHICH ACTS OF HOPEFULNESS AND MEANING.

V/O: HIS PRESIDENCY HAD SUCCESSES, FROM THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT TO OPERATION DESERT STORM, AN INTERNATIONAL COALITION THAT WOULD STOP SADDAM HUSSEIN’S AGGRESSION IN KUWAIT

AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF I CAN REPORT TO YOU THAT OUR ARMED FORCES FOUGHT WITH HONOR AND VALOR, AND AS PRESIDENT I CAN REPORT TO THE NATION AGGRESSION IS DEFEATED, THE WAR IS OVER

V/O: BUSH APPEALED TO AMERICANS WITH STRENGTH, BUT ALSO GENTLENESS

SOT: DANA CARVEY; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z851sZXYq5g (1:20-1:33) THE WAY TO DO THE PRESIDENT IS TO START OUT WITH MR ROGERS “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD” THEN YOU ADD A LITTLE JOHN WAYNE “HERE WE GO WE’RE GONNA GO OVER THE RIDGE” YOU PUT EM TOGETHER AND YOU’VE GOT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH.

V/O: A VERY POPULAR POST DESERT STORM BUSH STILL STRUGGLED WITH A LACKLUSTER ECONOMY. DEMOCRATIC OPPONENT BILL CLINTON SEIZED ON THIS

SOT: CLINTON: (:42-:50) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta_SFvgbrlY IN MY STATE WHEN PEOPLE LOSE THER JOBS THERES A GOOD CHANCE I’LL KNOW THEM BY THEIR NAME, WHEN A FACTORY CLOSES I KNOW THE PEOPLE WHO RAN IT. WHEN A BUSINESS GOES BANKRUPT I KNOW THEM.

V/O: BUSH LOST TO CLINTON IN 1992. 8 YEARS LATER HE BECAME THE FIRST PRESIDENT SINCE JOHN ADAMS TO HAVE A SON ELECTED PRESIDENT. HE WAS AWARDED THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM IN 2011

SOT: BUSH MEDAL OF FREEDOM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXBdfbULldU (26:18-26:31) OVER THE ARC OF HIS LIFE PRESIDENT BUSH HAS SERVED OUR NATION AS A TREMENDOUS FORCE FOR GOOD AND WE PROUDLY SALUTE HIM FOR HIS UNWAVERING DEVOTION TO OUR COUNTRY AND OUR WORLD

SOT: BUSH, IS SURVIVED BY 5 CHILDREN, 14 GRANDCHILDREN AND SEVEN GREAT GRANCHILDREN

Jimmy Carter did… a great thing for Israel. But after his presidency ended in 1981, he was so critical of Israeli policies … that many friends of Israel considered the former President … an enemy.

First : the accomplishment that just-about everyone says… was good.

<chyron: Nov. 19, 1977> (airport arrival)

It began in November of 1977. Anwar Sadat – the president of Egypt, Israel’s biggest Arab enemy – shattered all previous refusals to negotiate: he flew to the Jewish state, addressed the Knesset in Jerusalem…and started a series of talks with Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Their negotiations faltered; with major disagreements about whether to include the Palestinians – and perhaps an independent state for them – in an Israel-EGYPT peace treaty.

America’s president came to the rescue. Jimmy Carter invited Sadat and Begin to the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains – Camp David – and for 13 days, in September of 1978, Carter cajoled … prayed … stayed-up all night: in short did everything he could IMAGINE… to keep some level of confidence between the leaders of Israel and Egypt.

<chiron: September 17, 1978>

The result? The Camp David accords. Signed at the White House. A framework for a peace treaty.

<Menachem Begin SOT>

“He worked harder than my people did when they built the pyramids in Egypt.”

The accords envisioned “autonomy” for the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories that Israel had captured – only 11 years earlier – in the Six Day War of 1967.

Begin refused to say “yes” to a fully-fledged nation for the Palestinians, and refused to talk with Yasser Arafat’s PLO.

<chyron: March 26, 1979>

But a peace treaty with Egypt WAS signed on March 26, 1979. Again, at the White House: again, the product of non-stop crisis-solving by Carter.

The President was enormously pleased with himself; as a Bible-teacher all his life in Georgia, he loved the idea of bringing peace to the Holy Land.

From November 1979… until his last day in office in January 1981… Carter was frustrated by a hostage crisis : Iran was holding 52 American diplomats.

The American President’s image … was one of weakness.

In the years that followed… with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to expel Arafat and his PLO … other Middle East wars … and what the world condemned as Israel’s continuing “occupation” of “Palestinian lands” … Jimmy Carter obviously sided with the Palestinians.

Israelis and many AMERICAN Jews were offended by one of many books that Carter wrote : “Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid”.

Some of Carter’s supporters said he was warning that if there’s no peace-agreement soon – with an independent Palestinian state – then the result could BE like what South Africa used to have: with an oppressive Jewish government dominating an Arab majority.

Israel’s government concluded that Carter was an unfair, irredeemable critic; some Israeli officials hinting that he was swayed by Arab financing of the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. // In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in late 2009, Carter – who was then 85 years old – said he “never intended… to stigmatize the nation of Israel, even though (he) disagreed with the settlement policy. …

“My pre-eminent foreign policy objective” – the former President added – “has been peace in the Middle East.”

Dan Raviv, i24News, Washington.

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